Kiyan Anthony says Carmelo leaving Syracuse choice up to him - ESPN

Kiyan Anthony knows better than most about his father's legacy at Syracuse, which is one of the finalists for the No. 36 prospect and four-star recruit in the 2025 ESPN 100 rankings.

Before a decorated NBA career, Carmelo Anthony led the Orange to the 2003 national championship as a freshman. He also donated a significant sum of money to the school's basketball facility, which now bears his name.

Despite those family ties, Kiyan Anthony said that his father and mother, La La Anthony, have not nudged him to pick Syracuse.

"[My father] never pushes me to go to Syracuse just because his name is on the gym," Anthony told ESPN on Wednesday ahead of the release of the second season of «The Evolu7ion» on YouTube with Overtime. «He did so much at Syracuse. He knows that I'm my own person. I've just got to make my own decision at the end of the day.

»If it is Syracuse — I go there a lot and I practice, I work out there — if it is that, that's what it is. But he's never going to say, 'You got to go to Syracuse. You got to go there because I went there.' He's not going to make me follow in his footsteps unless I really want to."

Anthony said he will choose from his list of finalists — Syracuse, Auburn, USC, Florida State, Ohio State and Rutgers — in the next two months and he expects to take another visit to Syracuse before his final decision.

At Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, New York, Anthony's career has been scrutinized because of family. His father is a likely Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and his mother is an actress and celebrity with 15 million Instagram followers.

On his YouTube show, Anthony hopes to show what it's like to face the attention he's had since he was a child. But he also